Montenegro is a relatively new country and I didn’t even know about it until recently when I started planning for my trip to Croatia. During my research for this trip, I stumbled upon some scenic pictures from Montenegro and decided that I absolutely had to visit the country. I couldn’t wait for another trip, but with very limited time, it took a lot of effort to fit the visit into an already packed schedule. I eventually settled on spending one night in Kotor, one of the top places to visit in Montenegro, with brief visits to a couple of must-do sites.
Our flight arrived yesterday with a little delay. But since it took a lot less time than expected to pick up our rental car, we were able to leave the airport right on time.
It was a very scenic three-hour drive from Dubrovnik airport to our first site, Pavlova Strana Viewpoint. However, when we approached the border, traffic slowed down significantly. There was an extremely slow line to exit Croatia and then another extremely slow line to enter Montenegro.
After we finally crossed the border, we were significantly delayed, and I was worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to visit our planned site. However, I was determined to go because it was an hour and a half from Kotor, where we were spending the night, and we would waste almost three hours driving back and forth if we had to do it the next day.
By the time we arrived at Pavlova Strana Viewpoint, the sun was already beginning to set.
The view was spectacular and we were so glad we were able to make it here in time.
Getting to Kotor afterwards was easy even though it was a long drive. But it was already dark when arrived.
Kotor Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a very popular tourist site. It took us a very long time to eventually find the right parking lot and then our apartment and by the time we finally settled down, it was already most 11pm, a very long 31-hour day for me since I left home yesterday morning.
We got up very early this morning to explore the Old Town before sunrise.
We then headed to the trail to Kotor Fortress. The hike is said to involve 1,350 steps and the views are breathtaking and totally worth it.
We also wanted to hike the Ladder of Kotor, which was very close to the fortress. This hike was actually the main reason I decided to visit Montenegro in the first place. According to the map, there appeared to be a side trail leading from the trail to the fortress to the Ladder of Kotor, creating a loop. However, we couldn’t find it. So we decided to return to the Old Town and hike the Ladder of Kotor separately.
Ladder of Kotor consists lots of switchbacks. After climbing about a mile, we ran into a donkey blocking the trail with no way to get around it. Since the views had been fairly consistent up to that point, we decided to turn back.
Once we were back, we spent a little more time exploring the Old Town.
After touring Kotor Old Town, we headed to Lovcen National Park. The drive offered many scenic viewpoints, so we made frequent photo stops along the way.
At the entrance to the national park, we decided not to go in for several reasons: 1) They only accepted cash for the entrance fee, and we were short on Euros; 2) We figured the views would be similar to those we had seen on the drive up; and 3) We were short on time, and considering the delays at the border yesterday, we wanted to allow extra time just in case.
And returning from Montenegro to Croatia at the border took approximately three hours, even more time than expected. Despite the prolonged border crossing, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Montenegro and would definitely come back in the future.